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Gwyneth Paltrow has come under fire over the years for her strong and different opinions on sex, food, and now relationships, as she has joined in with many couples in a new trend known as ‘living together apart.’

This may sound like an oxymoron, but hear me out. There is a new trend in which couples have a shared home and then have a home apart or a place of their own. Upon announcing this style of relationship pattern with the world, of course, many people had things to say. However, Paltrow is not alone with her husband in doing this.

Expert Bella DePaolo spoke with Brides magazine and explained the following. “We are in a whole new era of couples living apart,” she adds, “What is relatively new, or newly getting recognized, are the couples living apart because they want to—or at least one person in the couple wants to.”

This new trend comes with a long line of family changes that have been made over the decades, like choosing to marry or have kids later in life. Much like that, many couples are choosing to live apart. And not even just in the bougie way like Paltrow, where there is a shared home. Some choose to just have separate homes altogether.

But why?

There are several reasons why couples might choose to lead separate lives. For example, they may both enjoy solitude, or they may like to keep finances entirely separate, In other cases, they may have to live separately due to distance, or they may just not function well as a couple under the same roof.

Me, when I think of this, I tend to think of my great-grandparents who were married 50+ years and had separate rooms.

And just because someone lives separately does not mean they do not love each other. Relationship expert Sherry Sims Allen also spoke with Brides magazine, and she says, “The couple loves each other, but don’t feel they need to live in the same house to express their togetherness,” and then adds, “They have an arrangement that is outside the box of traditional marriage.”